Alliance

Father and Son looked at each other their eyes glowing brightly with excitement. President Andillevé was determined to get his hands on the herbs and mechanical plows, as long as Jayde demands weren't too exorbitant, he would agree to almost anything.

"Lady Jayde, let's discuss your terms, what do you need to finalize this deal," President Andillevé said seriously.

"First the Merchants' Guild is not to reveal that Tardide is your source of herbs or the mechanical plow, second the mechanical plow and harvester can only be sold to farmers who sign an exclusive deal with the Merchants' Guild for their crops, thirdly Tardide will earn a percentage of the sales of the crops from those farmers and lastly the Merchants' Guild and Oldstrand will sign an alliance with Tardide guaranteeing the safety of the village" Jayde said listing her terms.

President Andillevé was impressed with Jayde forethought, by ensuring that Oldstrand couldn't reveal their source of the herbs and mechanical plow, it protected the village, and with the village earning a percentage of all crops sold by farmers who used their mechanical plow and harvester would ensure that the village had a residual income for years to come.

President Andillevé hadn't thought about tying the farmers who bought the mechanical plow and harvester to an exclusive deal, but when he reflected on the benefits that such a deal would bring to the Merchants' Guild, he couldn't wait to get started.

"Lady Jayde, all your terms are acceptable, but I can't negotiate on an alliance between Oldstrand and Tardide, that is beyond my authority," President Andillevé said looking over to his son.

"Father while you don't have the authority, I do, and I agree to your proposed alliance Lady Jayde" Counsellor Andillevé stated firmly.

Counsellor Andillevé wasn't about to let this deal fall through, the sort of wealth and power that would come from having the Mages' Guild come begging for an alliance with Oldstrand would ensure that the city would finally be able to throw off the yoke of the warlord, and Oldstrand would finally be free of his tyranny.

Counsellor Andillevé was sure that the elders of the city would back his commitment to Tardide.

Elder Ryunzo was astonished, within less than an hour Jayde had assured the safety of Tardide, as well as the future prosperity for the villagers. With Oldstrand's protection, the villagers of Tardide were guaranteed to have a happy and prosperous future.

Elder Ryunzo was profoundly grateful that they had been blessed that this young Mage had answered their cry for help, he couldn't help thinking that if the years that they had been terrorized by the Direwolves was the price they needed to pay to have Jayde enter their lives, then it was worth it.

With Counsellor Andillevé agreeing to the alliance, Jayde and President Andillevé started to negotiate the selling price for the sale of the herbs and mechanical plows and harvesters.

After agreeing to set prices for the first year, they both agreed that once the herbs became more abundant prices would drop, so they agreed to a seventy-five, twenty-five split between the Merchants' Guild, and for all farmers who signed an exclusive agreement with the Merchants' Guild, the village of Tardide would earn ten percent.

President Andillevé and Counsellor Andillevé agreed to visit Tardide in a weeks time to see the mechanical plow.

Once everybody was happy with the terms discussed, President Andillevé called for his scribe to draw up the agreements.

While his scribe was busy drawing up the agreements, President Andillevé called for more refreshments, then the five of them sat and chatted about the latest happenings on Telia.

After an hour had passed President Andillevé scribe entered with all the agreements in hand. Elder Ryunzo, President Andillevé, and Counsellor Andillevé read through them carefully, seeing that everything was as per their agreements everyone signed the contracts with Jayde and Master Whitestone acting as witnesses.

Handing over a promissory note to Elder Ryunzo for the fifty bags of charcoal sitting in the wagons below, President Andillevé invited them all to lunch.

Elder Ryunzo declined politely, as he still wanted to show Jayde around Oldstrand, and now with two thousand pieces of gold, he had a lot of items to purchase for the village.

Bidding farewell to the President Andillevé and his son, Jayde and Master Whitestone accompanied Elder Ryunzo to the bank to collect his gold.

***

Once Elder Ryunzo had collected the gold from the bank he tried to get Jayde to take at least half of it, but Jayde refused. Seeing that Elder Ryunzo was distressed about it, Jayde just asked that the old ladies in the villager make her half a dozen tarts a day for Reiko.

Both Master Whitestone and Elder Ryunzo were really surprised that Jayde battle pet could eat so many tarts a day, but Jayde couldn't tell them that she had a silver dragon as well that had developed a sweet tooth and begged her daily for tarts and cakes.

Still feeling that just giving Jayde a couple of tarts every day wasn't enough, Elder Ryunzo tried to get Jayde to take something else.

Jayde reminded Elder Ryunzo that they would still need to purchase some iron ore to make the harvester as well as some additional mechanical plows. With Jayde reminder Elder Ryunzo gave up on trying to force Jayde to take more compensation.

The trio spent the rest of day shopping, the villagers had run out of so many basic goods, that by the time Elder Ryunzo had finished his purchases he had to hire another three wagons to cart everything back to the village.

Worried about bandits on the road, Elder Ryunzo visited the Mercenary Guild to arrange some mercenaries to guard them on the way back. Since it was already late they decided to spend the night in Oldstrand and leave the next morning.

While his coin purse was notably lighter, Elder Ryunzo still had enough coins to treat Jayde and Master Whitestone to a delicious meal at one of the more famous restaurants in Oldstrand.

After enjoying their meal, the trio sat and drank their tea chatting merrily. For the first time in a long time, Elder Ryunzo felt as though a huge weight had lifted off his shoulders. He was really excited to see the expressions on the villagers faces tomorrow when they saw five wagons fully loaded of supplies for them.

After paying their bill the trio walked out of the restaurant and since they were all full they decided to walk back to their inn instead of hiring a carriage.

They hadn't walked more than a block when loud voices interrupted their quiet stroll.

In front of them were a group of young men, they were kicking and punching an old man lying on the ground.

"You filthy bastard, how dare you show your face here" one of the young men sneered.

"F*cking useless Mage, hit him harder Benler" another man shouted.

"No better than that, cut off his f*cking hands" the man Benler said, withdrawing a short dagger.

"Yeah and after that make him suck my d*ck," a scrawny man said reaching to unzip his pants.

Just as Jayde was about to intervene, Elder Ryunzo pushed past her.

"Stop it!" he yelled running up to the gang.

Jayde was pretty surprised at Elder Ryunzo's actions. While she knew him as a compassionate man, he didn't strike her as someone who was overly brave, nor as someone who would interfere in other people's matters.

"Oh look, it a f*cking mage-lover," the scrawny man said jeeringly.

"You must want to join this old bastard in sucking my d*ck," he said grabbing myself suggestively.

With that statement, all the young men burst into boisterous laughter and started to surround Elder Ryunzo.

Jayde could see that the situation was about to turn ugly for Elder Ryunzo, quickly weaving a fireball in her hand she strolled up the gang.

"Well well well, looks like you boys like picking on Mages, why don't you try me on for size?" she said nonchalantly the fireball in her hand bouncing up and down.

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